Many computing systems generate or receive data that may be desirable to store for a period of time. These computing systems often utilize a data storage device for data storage and retrieval. In many cases, a data storage device can include one or more physical media (e.g., magnetic platters, flash storage, etc.) that is subdivided into a number of physical regions or “sectors.” Each sector can be sized to store a fixed number of bytes which defines the minimum unit with which data can be read, modified, or written to the physical media. In this manner, the physical sector size implemented within a data storage device influences the addressing structure used to access data from the physical media of that data storage device. As such, communication between a computing system (“host”) and a data storage device typically takes place in sector-sized blocks of data.
However, certain hosts may issue instructions and/or commands using a sector size that is smaller than the physical sector size implemented by certain data storage devices. For example, a host may issue instructions in 512-byte blocks of data (“512” sector) to a data storage device implemented with 4,096 bytes per physical sector (“4K” sector). In such cases, the 4K data storage device may be required to emulate a 512-byte sector interface in order to successfully communicate with the 512 host. Emulation, in turn, can increase the complexity of the data storage device while also negatively impacting the performance and/or reliability thereof.
The use of the same or similar reference numerals in different drawings indicates similar, related, or identical items where appropriate.